I've noticed a decent number of complaints about the level design being worse than the first game, but I think it's not so much...bad, as it is very driven to cover specific concepts. The levels aren't big on singular paths and choke-points like the first game was, which makes them feel a lot more loose. The minecarts provide an extra challenge by not letting the player simply barricade off specific pathways. This is great while playing co-op, but I've found Solo to be an immense challenge since there's so many maps with three or four doors from completely different directions, without any kind of teleport doors in-between. The game is a lot of fun co-op but I feel like the single player took a hit for the team there.

The max level you can get on Endless by killing Orcs with damage is about 40-50 depending on your setup. The Orcs get progressively harder/sturdier every wave until you hit wave 100, and after wave 100 every wave is a replica of that wave, so being lucky with wave 100 would make the ongoing venture much easier. Though you also stop gaining skulls for pretty much everything besides random drop loot at wave 100, so there's not a reason to continue further. In order to actually get that far in the first place you are pretty much required to do a completely Physics-based setup and knocking orcs into pits, which apparently makes the game so easy that people who have done that well, end up needing to suicide in order to end the match, because it just keeps on destroying the wave 100 stuff.

While it's mostly all played out in audio, I really do love the humor of this series, and I really hope there's a third game where they dig more into the narrative.

Lorx Thanks Lorx! Yeah, I've heard a lot of people say the original had great map design, but I found the maps in this to be rather plain. I felt they were designed to either encourage you to run around constantly, or play coop and split with your partner to better cover a wider area. I was sad how little RabidChinaGirl and I actually got to spend in the same spot, fighting off the orcs together. :/

Definitely agree the game has a good sense of humor! I wish there were more of it. I wish it was contextual and tied into an exciting plots, as opposed to just off-hand conversation. Felt like Robot really played it safe, didn't set any big goals beyond co-op for this sequel.

When playing co-op there have been very few maps where we don't actively try and barricade to make everything into one choke point so we play on the same stretch.

It feels like the map guys said:

Dude: "Well, what ideas do we have for maps based around this idea of co-op?"Marco: "I know, we could make them defend doors on the opposite side of the map, force them to consider how to work together, while working alone!"Bill & Ted: "Totally Excellent!"Dude: "So, do we have any other ideas, to make the maps feel different, maybe explore other venues of how to use co-op?"Polo: "No, not really"

I can understand why they didn't want people defending the same spot in every map, at that point you're kind of wasting the idea of co-op. But since every map is based around the idea of radical splits, without that extra person guarding the opposing door, some maps just don't...work. I don't think I ever want to try the Finale map solo. That's just ridiculous.